The Naked Brothers Band: Il film
The Naked Brothers Band: Il film è un film del 2005 diretto da Polly Draper ed interpretato dai suoi figli Nat e Alex Wolff, che interpretano i membri di un gruppo rock. Trama The film begins with an introduction to the documentary from the boys. Nat and Alex Wolff, aged nine and six respectively, are members of the fictional band The Silver Boulders which also consists of Thomas, David, and Josh. The band found success after music executive (John B. Williams) signed them to his label, Who's the Man Records. The band performs their new song, "Motormouth" at a concert in the Hammerstein Ballroom. After the show, the band members describe how their group started and show a clip from their music video "Crazy Car". The bandmates get along well until Thomas composes the song "Boys Rule, Girls Drool", which Nat dislikes. Nat writes a song called "Rosalina" that is about Josh's elder half-sister. Thomas and Josh ridicule Nat about the song because it shows his feelings for her. Meanwhile, Josh composes another song that Nat also dislikes, titled "I'm the God of Rock and Roll", set to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star". The band has a food fight in a restaurant, prompting Thomas, David, and Josh to leave and form a new group, The Gold Boulders, managed by the scornful Mort Needleman (Jonathan Pillot). After watching media reports of the band's split on television, Nat and Alex go into a state of depression. Alex begins to binge on lemon-lime soda and then falls asleep, while he lay curled in the midst of aluminum cans; whereas Nat writes a song titled "If There Was a Place to Hide" as the band's fans gather outside his apartment, pleading for them to reunite. Despite the absence of the formers, Alex persuades a reluctant Nat to revive the band, and subsequently they renew its title to The Naked Brothers Band. Through a line-up of auditions, the trio selects Rosalina as their cellist and Cole Hawkins — a member of the original Naked Brothers Band — as the guitarist. The newly established band embark on a tour to Chicago, yet Nat discovers that The Gold Boulders is their opening act. The Gold Boulders start the show with "Boys Rule, Girls Drool" and are instantly booed off the stage. After their performance, The Naked Brothers Band perform "Hardcore Wrestlers (with Inner Feelings)" and "Rosalina", which are greeted with a loud applause by the audience. After the concert, Nat hosts a party for the band in his apartment. In the midst of the party, David, Thomas, and Josh arrive at his front door, asking to join the reconstructed band. Forgivingly, a surprised Nat welcomes them to join the celebration. The film concludes with the outfit performing "Crazy Car" on the roof of the Wolffs' apartment while fireworks detonate in the background. Produzione Sviluppo Through their father, Nat and Alex were exposed to music from birth. As a four-year-old, Nat showed musical gifts that astounded his father. He easily taught himself piano chords, which he called my proud chords . As a five-year-old, he began to compose songs after listening to music by The Beatles and Alex began playing the saxophone when he was two. Nat and his brother once shouted, "We're the naked brothers band!" after having a bath, which inspired the name of the movie. As a pre-schooler, Nat and his friends formed a band called The Silver Boulders. As a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Nat wrote a song titled "Firefighters" when he was six years old, which he performed with his band for charity. The benefit concert was staged behind his family's apartment and raised over US$45,000, which was donated to the children of the personnel from New York City Fire Department's Squad 18 who were killed as a result of the attacks. After the successful concert, the band began to perform at gay and lesbian Christmas celebrations, one-year-old birthday parties e ristoranti. Poi Alex, ispirato da Ringo Starr, chose to play the drums in the band. After the break-up of The Silver Boulders, the siblings decided to revive The Naked Brothers Band. Draper did not want her children to be actors; she explained, "Nat kept putting signs on his door: 'I want to be a child actor!' I said, 'No, it's too brutal. However, Nat wrote and directed a sitcom called Don't Eat Off My Plate, which Draper presented in documentary style by interviewing his friends. Michael Wolff set up a recording session in the studio along with Nat, Alex, and himself. Draper was impressed by the recording and contemplated making a mockumentary about the band, presenting the boys as music icons akin to The Beatles. In a ''TV Guide interview in early 2007, Draper explained, "What originally happened was that Nat and Alex had a band, and the idea evolved based on that. Spinal Tap meets The Little Rascals was my concept ... I wanted to have that Help! or A Hard Day's Night kind of feeling." Riprese The film was originally intended as an extended family project, and was shot over five weeks in mid-2004 for less than US$1 million. Filming took place on location in New York City, and at the Draper-Wolff family apartment in Lower Manhattan. According to Draper, the crew "would sneak into locations and run". Draper wrote and directed the film, which was produced by Ken H. Keller, Caron Rudner, Jonathan Pillot, Michael Wolff and Draper herself. The film was co-produced by Fotene Trigonis and was edited by the associate producer Craig Cobb. The executive producers were Draper, Wolff, and Draper's brother, Tim. Keller used a color framing, high-definition video camera. Rudner served as the line producer, while John M. Davis was the music editor. Rick Butler served as the production designer, Frederick Howard was the supervising sound editor, and Deb Temco oversaw the casting. Quando Polly Draper told her friend Julianne Moore and her husband, writer and director Bart Freundlich, about the film, Freundlich responded, "Julia would love to be in your movie." Moore changed her schedule at late notice to participate in filming, and Draper wrote Moore's scene as it was being filmed; Draper quickly created a set that depicted the backstage green room of the talk show, Conan O'Brien. Moore and Nat filmed the scene in one take, and Draper was impressed with her son's performance, while saying that Moore's presence added credibility to the project. Casting Gran parte del cast è composto da amici o parenti della famiglia Draper-Wolff. Tim Draper è il fratello di Polly e John B. Williams is the cellist for Michael Wolff's band Impure Thoughts. Barbara eda-Young, James Badge-Dale, Gretchen Egolf, and Cooper Pillot had previously performed in Draper's playwright Getting Into Heaven. Jesse Draper is Tim's daughter and thus Polly's niece, and Nat and Alex's cousin. Billy and Adam Draper are Tim's sons, and Coulter Mulligan is Jesse's cousin. Many of Wolff and Draper's show business friends appeared in the film. Wolff had been the music director for jazz singer Nancy Wilson, who then introduced him to Arsenio Hall. After Wilson introduced the two together, Hall chose Wolff to conduct the orchestra on The Arsenio Hall Show. Tony Shalhoub portrayed Phil in Draper's screenwriting debut The Tic Code, which was inspired by Wolff's difficulties with Tourette syndrome as well as his talent as a jazz pianist. Draper guest starred in the first season of Shalhoub's hit sitcom Monk. Other guest stars in the movie include Cyndi Lauper, David Thornton, Brent Popolizio, Cindy Blackman, and Ricki Lake. Draper, who had played Ellyn Warren on ABC's drama series Thirtysomething, also made an appearance with co-stars Tim Busfield, Mel Harris, Peter Horton, Melanie Mayron, Ken Olin, and Patricia Wettig. David Levi, Thomas Batuello, and Joshua Kaye were preschool friends of Nat. Moore's son, Cal, has been a classmate of Alex since preschool, while Uma Thurman's daughter was also a preschool friend of Alex. Ann Curry's son Walker, an original member of The Silver Boulders, was Nat's friend in preschool. Cole Hawkins, an actor who also starred as Leonard in the 2003 musical comedy film School of Rock, had no previous involvement with the band. The actress Allie DiMeco was also not a member of the group; she auditioned for her role. Music Nat wrote most of the songs performed in the film. As a six year old, he composed a melody without lyrics, which he later used as the basis for the bubblegum pop piece "Crazy Car". The song was meant to emulate the music of The Beach Boys. "Firefighters", the song written by Nat for a local 9/11 fundraiser, was later retitled to "Rosalina" for the movie. Nat wrote "Motormouth" while he was angry at Alex. Another song, "That's How It Is", was written by Alex after an unsuccessful dating attempt with a teenager ten years his senior. Additional songs Nat performed in the film include "Got No Mojo", "Hardcore Wrestlers (with Inner Feelings)", "I Need You", "Sorry Girl", and "If There Was a Place to Hide". Michael Wolff contributed to the underscore and produced the music with Levine. In the film, Wolff performed in the songs "Rathskeller Polka", "Rathskeller Waltz", "Naked Party Polka", and "Naked Tango". He played the underscore for "Shakey Shakey" (lyrics by Alex), and "Boys Rule, Girls Drool" and "Splishy Splashy (Timmerman Song)", both written by Draper. Nancy Wilson sang a rendition of the song "Crazy Car" for the film. Releases and debuts Television spin-off According to Michael Wolff, the family made the film without expecting a television series spin-off. Their agent believed the film would be lucrative and market research showed a positive reaction with a young audience. After the film was shown at the Hamptons International Film Festival, Nickelodeon bought it. In an article for The New York Times, Albie Hecht said, "They're just real: real brothers, real friends; it's all the stuff kids do when they're hanging out on the playground. The idea that you're watching a documentary is so much fun. Then you put them into that fantasy of being a world-famous rock band, and that's the sauce that makes it work." Moreover, "he had an independent production deal with Nickelodeon" and believed the film suited the network and that a television show was feasible. Draper and Wolff did not want their children in show business at such a young age but agreed when Hecht's agent promised to work within the boy's schedule, so that they would not miss school. This meant a summer shooting schedule in New York and short, 13-episode seasons. Tom Ashiem, the executive vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon explained, "At first, we were intrigued by the idea, but we weren't sure kids would get the vague tongue-and-cheek-of-it. Then a bunch of us took it home to our own children and they loved it." ''The Naked Brothers Band'' television series ran from 2007 to 2009. Draper was the creator, head writer, executive producer, and director, while Hecht was the other executive producer and his production company, Worldwide Biggies produced the series. Later, made-for-TV movies were created and aired as the series continued—a total of eight have been screened on Nickelodeon. The latter films often consisted of an extended, two-part episode—Nickelodeon usually uses the "movie" definition for these hour-long episodes—and were usually broadcast as part of a holiday event or on weekends. International debuts The film aired worldwide, debuting in the United States on January 27, 2007, and in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2007. It also aired in Canada on September 10, 2007 on YTV and in Germany on October 20, 2007. The film received a Region 1 DVD release on April 3, 2007 through Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Home Entertainment. Reception The film won the audience award for a family feature film at the 2005 Hamptons International Film Festival. When it premiered on the network, it was seen by an average of 2.7 million viewers. The song "Crazy Car" was downloaded more than 100,000 times on iTunes; it was placed on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 charts for seven weeks and the track was featured on the Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice, Vol 3. Ronnie Sheib of Variety wrote: "Convincingly faithful to kids' rhythms and speech patterns, and featuring several catchy if one-chorus numbers, this bouncy, feel-good kidpic, with targeted release strategy, could rock peers and parents alike." Felicia R. Lee from The New York Times called the film "an ebullient mock documentary". Tami Horiuchi of Amazon.com said that this "funny spoof of the Hollywood rockumentary genre is so over-done that some viewers might find it distasteful, offensive, and/or inappropriate for children" and recommended an age group between the ages of 9 and 13. Note Locandina Categoria:Film statunitensi Categoria:Film commedia Categoria:Film musicali Categoria:Pagine prive di immagini